REPORT: HOLIDAY HIRING WAS BEST SINCE 2006

Holiday retail hiring across the country was the strongest since 2006, the year before the start of the Great Recession.

Retailers brought in 728,300 people in October, November and December, the most since they hired 746,900 in 2006.

The 2012 hiring was also a more than 10 percent increase than the total in 2011, when 660,200 seasonal workers were hired. The unadjusted figures were released Monday by Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. The vast majority of the hiring was done in November.

“An early Thanksgiving, which meant earlier Black Friday sales, may have contributed to an earlier hiring surge,” John Challenger, the firm’s CEO, said in a statement. “Additionally, a growing number of retailers opened their doors on Thanksgiving Thursday, which may have also boosted the need for extra hiring in order to ensure that enough workers were available to staff these holiday hours.”

The national unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in December, with the country adding 155,000 payroll jobs.

Retail hiring was also up over 2011 here in San Diego County, where the unemployment rate is 8.3 percent.

Overall through November, clothing and clothing accessory stores in the county added 15 percent more workers than they had by November 2011. The December figures for San Diego County will be released Jan. 18 by the Employment Development Department.

Of course, the end of the holiday season means a large job cut in the retail industry. In January and February of 2012, Challenger Gray reports that the retail industry laid off 789,400 workers. That’s well more than the 660,200 people retailers hired in October, November and December of 2011.